1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to bottle rinsers of the kind conveying a succession of bottles past a rinse station. More specifically, the invention is an in-line bottle rinser that inverts the bottles, rinses them, and returns them to upright position without rotating the bottles about a wheel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Bottles and jars have been rinsed by placing them on a conveyor, clamping them in a holder, and then inverting the holder and bottle by passing the holder around a wheel in a vertical plane. The bottle may be rinsed and drained in the inverted position, after which the holder passes around another wheel returning the bottle to upright position. The holder is typically attached to a chain, and when the holder carries a bottle, the bending of the chain is restricted to prevent the carried bottle from striking an adjacent carried bottle, or alternatively, the holders must be spaced widely to allow the chain to bend.
The bending path followed by bottles in prior art bottle rinsers often requires the use of multiple conveyors and complex means to conduct the bottles around the bends. Further, the wide spacing of bottle holders causes inefficiency in the rinser, which ideally is continuously spraying water. If the bottles cannot be close together, the rinser may either waste the rinsing liquid by spraying it between bottles or require complex means to control a synchronized intermittent spray.